FOR RUFIO - NOW !!
DRUMS, BASS,GUITAR AND VOCALS - summary for rufio.
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the basics. eg : a simple ROCK song.
1. put a click track down as track 1 in magix MONO.
make sure its the tempo you want your song to be in.
you can use a drum machine as a click track into the sound card.
this will make you keep in time when you come to play the drums.
if the song is 3 minutes, lay say 3 minutes and 15 seconds down,
to give you some lead in 1234 beat or for another studio musician you
might bring in later or the record company might bring in if they
decide to re-engineer your song. ie: add leeway.
2. write out all your songs lyrics, and changes
and the KEY of the song. now put a reference tone down on track two.
so if the song is in the key of E , record a E tone from a synth.
this will also enable you to tune your guitar to your tracks.
then record as track 3 your first rough rhythm guitar. using the click
as a guide. so now you have the click track plus a rough guide
rh guitar track. now play your drums to the click and rough
rh guitar track but only do a minute of recording.
ask yourself are the drums IN TUNE to the rhythm guitar. if not.
TUNE THE DRUMS around say the key of the song - in this case E,
and the guitar track. this is also the time to try different mic positions
on the drums doing test recordings to hear which sounds best with diffrent
mics and distances till you hear a "sweet spot".
3. now record for good your drum track to the click and guitar tracks playing.
but dont flail everywhere. keep THIS drum track SIMPLE and TIGHT.
Hi hat, snare and kick only. now do a second drum track.
maybe adding some subtle hits to complement the first track.
BUT NO CYMBALS OR TOMS. you do this after having developed the song further.
if you feel the urge to add some complimentary latin percussion,
do it as a test only.
4. now add a first vocal track. NOTE : at each stage of this process
if you have a poor consumer sound card, use a product like cool edit 96
on your tracks to do clever track cleaning/noise reduction.
and generally cleaning up your tracks with clever fade outs and ins,
and for example silencing on a track when no voice is singing etc.
5. at this point you have a very basic bed track. now add a bass
track using a direct box or something like a rockman if you have one.
then add another track very low down, a bass from a synth complementing the bass track.
now we start the serious stuff. be brutal. is it starting to kick
booty or is the playing sloppy. if so re-do. try a bass amp as well.
some basses even sound good through guitar amps - an old trick.
more controlled and less boomy. experiment with subtle compression
settings of attack and release.
6. now lets start on the rhythm guitars proper. record one and pan it to the left of the stereo image on
playback using the track pan button in magix. record another but slightly
different and complementing the first, but pan right.
put the first rough rh guitar guide way down in level in the centre.
now we get to where the rubber hits the road. several takes should be tried re-doing
the left and right panned guitar tracks and seeing if they can be
improved by different micing techniques on the amp and positions.
closer maybe ? further back ? just peeking round the corner of the amp ?
amp full bore but micing the room ? seeing the effect of micing two amps ?
or using a guitar effects pedal ? this is where the engineering creativity comes in.
maybe using a magix fx to tart up a track etc etc. for thickness maybe copying the
track and just inching it forward a few millisecs or putting effect on the copy only.
lots of possibilities. including eq/comp/fx/guitar pedals etc.
at this point we have a basic bed track with guitars left and right,
bass plus a reinforcing bass from a synth about centre or just off centre,
and our drums say from about 10 to 2 oclock. or on some older type songs
right centre. it depends what the song calls for.
7. onto the lead vocals. suggest you try doubled lead vocals.
ie: sing the track twice. the little nuances give it an edge.
pan lead vox about centre. if they need thickening. use the usual
tricks of copying the track and advancing the copy a few millisecs,
and or putting ech/rvb TINY AMOUNTS on the duped track and blend with original.
eq to taste. remember to clean up all your tracks and noise reduce if using
a cheap sound card. when applying fx like rvb there is a golden rule
in audio engineering. the quicker the tempo use shorter rvb/echo times.
another golden rule. USE ONE EFFECT AT ONE TIME. dont wash out the mix.
ie: when the lead guitar is playing, you put the effect on IT,
not everything else. if you need an effect that is. be aware
of your potential listener, and dont confuse the listener with lots
of fx all happening at once.
8. now do your lead guitar. if its a typical rock song , you want a strong
lead guitar lick in the introduction, a nice lead or two in the middle,
and on the outtro. same deal. try doubling the track tricks/duping.
experimenting with mic positioning. one trick i use is to mic a
regular amp for one lead track, then on the second play the same lead through
a guitar processor. you can get as balsy as you want this way.
you can try different panning tricks with leads. centre or double
leads hitting the listener from left and right. or a dry lead centre with an effect on one or other
side or do timed pans of leads. my song "woohoo" uses a timed pan lead going
from one speaker to another and back to centre. another trick with
lead guitar is to do another track but an octave, or a third or fifth
higher or lower than the original. takes quite a skill to pull off.
you hear it on a lot of hit records. other tricks include playing other
instruments with the lead guitar like an organ low down mimicking the phrasing,
or say a synth or complementary electric twelve string.
9. so at this stage the songs pretty complete. except now find the holes
in the song where you might put some nice cymbal crashes and tom rolls,
and maybe some latin percussion to complement the song. maybe you
have a pad triggering a nice sampler crash cymbal or some other
interesting special effect like an industrial sound or a bird cheep or whatever.
this is the time now to record that special effect you've found.
10. if you now need back up vocals. this is the point where one gets
the lady singers in to do the backups and record them. maybe in two passes in different octaves/harmonies
if thats what the song needs.
at this stage normally the producer will once again ask the question ?
is it sounding good ? does this song grab the listener ?
if not try some more/different instrument tracks, and rebuild the song.
I'll cover mixing and mixdown another day if you wish more of my blabbering and
tricks.
rufio - this is but a very basic summary introduction to the work that goes into a basic song to give you
some ideas on how to build your own song work procedure.
if you have questions - just ask !
THE BIGGEST ADVICE I CAN PASS ON TO YOU is when i started,
a senior engineer told me...
1. USE YOUR EARS
2. YOUR A PAINTER. PAINT A PLEASING SOUND.
although i try , i often fail miserably. but occassionally a piece
of magic occurs. its all part of THE GIG.
peace, and happy new year.